Chess: Aronian maintains second spot on FIDE rankings

Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian has maintained his status as the world’s second best player in the latest rankings published by international chess’s governing body, FIDE, on Wednesday.

The top player list updated bimonthly shows Aronian having a rating of 2820, trailing the top-ranked grandmaster Magnus Carlsen from Norway by 15 points.

It was in January that Aronian for the first time climbed to the second position. Before that, the 29-year-old Armenian grandmaster had stayed in third place for more than a year after breaking the 2800 rating barrier in November 2010.

The FIDE Top 100 female players list includes three Armenian grandmasters. The highest rank among them is held by Elina Danielian (position 25: rating 2478), followed by Lilit Mkrtchyan (in 33rd place, rating 2458) and Lilit Galojan (in 98th place; rating 2364). Hungary’s Judit Polgar tops the rankings with a rating of 2709.

In the list of 133 chess nations ranked by the average rating of their top 10 players Armenia has improved by one position over the January listing and is currently in fourth place (average rating 2659; has 33 grandmasters and 22 international masters; ‘total titled’ – 84).

The FIDE nations rating list is topped by Russia (2744), followed by Ukraine (2697) and China (2661).